COTTON 299 



long as butter and cheese and beef come to the 

 South by express and freight, there is a demand, an 

 opportunity, for the production of these commod- 

 ities in Southern territory. 



Until every cotton farm possesses foundation 

 stock for cattle and sheep and swine breeding, 

 there are too few animals; until enough are raised 

 to supply local markets, and to consume locally 

 raised feeds, the live stock supply is short and the 

 cotton farmer fails to realize his opportunity for 

 wealth and prosperity. 



WE NEED BETTER GRADES OF STOCK 



It is sadly true that the live stock of the Cotton 

 Belt is extremely inferior. The average cow 

 produces but 2,000 pounds of milk annually; the 

 average steer matures in four or five years, and then 

 only with a weight of 800 or 900 pounds. 



Is growing this kind of stock economy? 



Do you cultivate your corn with a hoe or with a 

 cultivator? Do you harvest your wheat with a 

 sickle or with a harvester ? Do you separate seed 

 by hand or use the gin ? Do you even travel long 

 distances now on horse-back, or do you go on the 

 steam car? 



Surely not. You use the most up-to-date tools 

 and implements, and follow modern methods in 

 everything but your live-stock machines : for the old 

 scrub cow and scrub steer are simply out-of-date 

 machines. 



More live stock then, and better, that the South 

 may feed its own meal, to make its own butter, its 

 own cheese, its own milk, its own meat: to get not 

 only the profit of growing cotton and other feeding 

 stuffs, but a profit in feeding it by means of the 



